#fandom musings

[theweeklydiscourse]

Zuko really is the most complex redemption arc tumblr can handle before they start getting scared.

#the consequences of Zukos redemption arc being seen as the epitome of redemption arcs have been dire #yes this is based on that other post #this is what happens when media made for children is seen as the golden standard of storytelling #people will use Zuko’s arc as a measuring stick to judge how far a character can go before they’re beyond redemption and even then #atla #avatar zuko #zuko #fandom musings #fandom discourse #zutara #redemption arc

[batbeato]

Phenomenon not unique to Umineko but starkly showcased because of it: the difficulty with separating discomfort of a character from analysis, and from judgement of others.

There are so many characters in Umineko that make people uncomfortable - Rosa is one of the first that comes to mind, but Kinzo does as well. They are such well-written, human characters - and also terrible abusers. They are uncomfortable to watch, they are uncomfortable to analyze, because it feels uncomfortable to remember and acknowledge that, yes, the abusers are human too even though they are terrible.

And there are people who will love characters like Rosa because of how well-written she is, just as there are people who will dislike or even hate her because she is uncomfortable, she is abusive. Some people will then go on, as they hate Rosa, to also hate people who enjoy her character, equating their enjoyment of her character to condoning or ignoring her actions.

I've also seen the opposite, wherein people who love a character will be upset that there are people who heavily dislike or hate a character who, while well-written, is abusive and uncomfortable. They may even equate this dislike to a lack of understanding of Umineko (a common way people are attacked for their opinions, and one I'm trying to move away from using).

People should respect that people may enjoy a character they do not, and that does not always reflect on their views regarding real-life treatment of others. They should also respect that people may not enjoy a character they do, and that does not reflect on their understanding of the text. Again, not a problem unique to Umineko fans, but I've noticed it amongst us.

#umineko #umineko no naku koro ni #for once its not spoilers #fandom musings #not sure this is as solid as i wanted it to be but #i've seen both of these reactions to people enjoying or disliking certain chars and its sad #if rosa reminds someone of their own abuse i think its fair if they dont like her #or the opposite as well #you dont need to love a character to understand them #without love it cannot be seen but if you have love the whole world #is different and the ocean is blue. does kanon love the ocean? no #but he loves jessica and it means the world has color and nuance he didn't see before #if you love the text or the author you can see even if you hate Rosa

[inevitablemoment]

So, you know that necklace with the three stars that Callie wears?

Okay, I have a headcanon about that.

The necklace was a gift that Egon sent to Callie after Trevor was born. Her ex-husband was the one to find it in the mail and passed the gift off as his "push present" to her; it originally came with two stars, but she added a third after Phoebe was born.

In the Cathleen Lives AU, Cathleen is the one to give it to Callie, but Egon asks her not to tell Callie that it's from him. It's only after the end of Afterlife that Cathleen tells Callie the truth.

EDIT: When Callie divorces her ex-husband in the canon verse, he fesses up that the necklace wasn't from him, but doesn't tell her that it was from her father.

#Callie Spengler #Ghostbusters #Ghostbusters: Afterlife #Headcanons #My Headcanons #Fanfic and Fandom #Fandom Musings #Callie Spengler's Star Necklace #Carrie Coon #Egon Spengler #Trevor Spengler #Phoebe Spengler #Cathleen Spengler #Cathleen Lives AU

[local-redhead-bookworm]

Some of y’all on this site don’t want a redemption arc, you want an apology tour and a penance arc. Do y’all just expect a character to spend the rest of their life mentally beating themself up because of past misdeeds? What are you, Catholic?

#redemption arc #on redemption arcs #fandom musings #I have a lot of thoughts about the overlap of fandom and conservatism #some of y’all have not unpacked your religious trauma as much as you think you have #my posts

[thischubbyfangirl]

Considering all the tags I've seen for One Piece fanfictions, this very one is an artwork in itself and I love it.

#my fav tag ever #one piece #fandom musings #donquixote doflamingo #doffy one piece #doffy

[viktheviking1]

What's a fandom that you think needs more attention?

If you even mildly like Hamilton, You will love SIX the Musical. It's a history musical but it's British, plus feminine rage.

We stan the queens

#fandom stuff #fandom lol #fandom love #fanbase #fanboy #fangirl #fangirling #fan girl #six the musical #six musical #hamilton musical #alexander hamilton #hamilton fandom #fandom problems #fandom posting #fandom memes #fandom musings #fandom woes #fandom analysis #fandom stupidity #fandom stats #fandom fuckery #fandom feels #fandom things #fandom takes #fandom tournament #fandom thoughts #fandom discourse #fandom drama #fandom discussion

[haveyoureadthisfanfic]

intrigued by this discussion and people being in a fandom without seeking out fanfic. i look up fanfic for everything i watch/read whether i liked it or not. for science.

Honestly, fair.

Sometimes, I get curious about a specific media or ship and I check Ao3 just to see how many fics there are.

If I had a nickel for every time I checked Ao3 for fics about a slash ship from a fairly niche piece of media expecting just a few passionate writers and there were actually almost 100 fics, I'd have two nickels. But it's weird that it happened twice.

#fic asks #haveyoureadthisfic #pollblr #tumblr polls #fanfiction #fandom poll #fanfic #fandom culture #internet culture #not a poll #fandom musings

[ariel-seagull-wings]

@themousefromfantasyland @thealmightyemprex @minimumheadroom @professorlehnsherr-almashy @bixiebeet @spengnitzed @inevitablemoment @janeb984 @janegon-forever @amalthea9

#fandom musings #pop culture #polls #ghostbusters #superheroes

[curlspen]

Fandom when male characters are remorseless genocidal monsters: He’s got a good heart under it all, don’t be mean to my baby boy 😭 His mom didn’t pick up the phone for him one time, it’s her fault!

Fandom when female characters make one morally dubious choice after being brutalized by men for 6 seasons straight: She is an evil backstabbing temptress and she’s actually been the real abuser the whole time, here’s my meta on why she deserves to be burned at the stake.

#sansa stark #octavia blake #caroline forbes #so many more #i love my sympathetic evil boys as much as the next queer but the misogyny in fandom is endlessly infuriating #fandom discourse #fandom musings

[theweeklydiscourse]

Why is nuance dieing?

The younger generation seems to be so much more obsessed with moral puritanism in fiction and irdk why. Could it be because kids these days don't interact with real people and are just chronically online so they repeat what they see on the internet?

Actually saw someone saying people who like fictional bad boys are the reason why men get away with sa & rape irl and countries are criminalizing abortion...

It's just so depressing to see that. This line of thinking is scary actually.

I don't remember people going this mad over morals when shows and movies like Vampire Diaries and Twilight saga were huge. It's like people have regressed.

The media we consume is becoming more and more didactic as we enter an age where it seems like every piece of popular media is obsessed with delivering their messages and themes like an after school PSAs. Media is becoming increasingly more sanitized and “family friendly” to appeal to the broadest possible audience to create more and more profits for corporations. This obsession with sanitized fiction has become commonplace with many younger people who parrot what they see online and on the media they consume and proceed to deliver underdeveloped takes on subjects they don’t fully understand yet.

It becomes even more interesting when people point to fictional narratives as the cause for societal problems when there are already larger institutions that have historically been responsible for what they claim fiction causes. They displace the blame for societal ills like SA, abuse, patriarchal violence and misogynistic legislation onto fiction, fan fiction and media that explores taboo subject matter. While I don’t deny that fiction has power, 90% of the time these people have no idea of the ways literary works influence our culture and default to a 1:1 “monkey see, monkey do” explanation for why people must consume the “correct media”.

Another factor is the way that people have become accustomed to moralizing their content consumption. They have convinced themselves that they need a concrete and righteous justification for their likes and dislikes and this has ruined the way fandom interacts with literature, film and other art forms. With this in mind, they can no longer dislike or even hate something without creating some moral justifications for why “hating this thing is actually progressive and righteous!” and in the process, conflate consumerism with activism.

The comparison to Puritanism is quite fitting in this case. After all, the principles of that religion were based in purity, obedience and censorious beliefs for self-indulgences and we can draw comparisons with the way people online discuss certain subjects. There’s a phenomenon where people will say something along the lines of: “It’s alright to like (insert problematic character here)! But you need to acknowledge that they are a bad person.” To them, it seems like a gesture at fairness and magnanimity when in reality, it is an attempt at exerting unearned moral authority over the tastes of others. It is a demand that a person proves their moral innocence to them in a performative manner that validates their need to feel superior. But it’s all performative purity because even if a person did explain/justify their fictional tastes, these people wouldn’t care and would continue to demand purity from others.

People can’t even discuss certain characters anymore without running into people accusing them of being terrible people who would approve of real-life violence and abuse. And I can’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t always like this, when did it change?

#fandom discourse #fandom musings #shadow and bone #reylo fandom #reylo discourse #reylo #darklina #s&b salt #s&b netflix #s&b critical #anti leigh bardugo #lb critical #zutara #shipping discourse #Puritanism

[batbeato]

reminded recently of the moralizing of fandom. "you just like this character because they're hot" (implying that there is no other reason that someone would like them). but what's wrong with that? well written characters aren't owed favorite/liked character status. people can choose based off of hotness if they want. that's also a way to consume media, isn't it? it doesn't make someone media illiterate if they really enjoy characters they find attractive or that have cool character designs, or other "surface-level" reasons. there's no need to decide how others can enjoy media.

but it extends to other things too. "you must dislike this character because she's a woman". "you must like this character because he's a man". and this makes you misogynistic. there are trends, of course - there are cases where incredibly cool, well-written female characters are villainized by a fandom. the female protagonist of persona 3 comes to mind - disliking her is fine, but people come up with a lot of bad faith reasons like "she's a groomer", "she ruins the themes of the story". it doesn't mean that any individual person, taken in good faith, who prefers the male protagonist is misogynistic for doing so, but that the general trend of dislike for the female protagonist, as well as the harassing behavior of specific fans, is misogynistic. other trends, with less caustic and toxic behavior, can similarly carry misogyny, such as MLM ships being more popular than WLW in majority of big fandoms. these trends can be caused by misogyny in the original media (for example, poor treatment, writing, or sidelining of female characters, leading to less fandom interest), and can potentially reflect misogyny in individual actors.

it is true that preferring or focusing on, for example, male characters, can indicate biases rooted in bigotry. however, I think that it is always important to remember that it is only a potential. there are cases where a preference is merely a preference, or is instead rooted in flaws of the media they enjoy, or the person's background. there is a correlation between someone, for example, not having much interest in wlw ships and being lesbophobic. but not having much interest is not always caused by this. it could be caused by numerous other factors, such as preferring mlm ships due to being mlm oneself.

No one is hurt by someone preferring a character because they're hot, or not preferring (a) female character(s). But people are hurt by being harassed and insulted for those preferences. You aren't punching up. You're punching and putting people down. Don't.

what should be focused on is: are people harassing, insulting, degrading, or mocking others for their (harmless) interpretations and preferences in media? are people spreading or using harmful and bigoted ideas or language, whether about fictional characters or about real people?

I don't think making moralizing statements about how people consume media is how we can best fight fandom trends that harm marginalized groups. Instead, why not focus on bigoted and harmful behavior? Fandom should be a safe place. Not a place where people fear harassment for 'incorrect' opinions. Right?

#fandom culture #fandom meta #fandom musings

[themousefromfantasyland]

The fans that choose to focus on the batfamily dynamics and Batman's compassion and humanity rather than the power fantasy of punching street criminals are the only things keeping Batman from fully becoming a fascistic symbol like the Punisher.

Thank you guys. Keep fighting the good fight

#batman #batfamily #batdad #dc comics #dc #fascisim #fandom musings

[inevitablemoment]

Please, give me an adaptation of Anne of Green Gables that faithfully covers House of Dreams and Ingleside (my two favorite books in the series)

Oh, I would've killed for an adaptation of those books with Megan Follows and Jonathan Crombie.

#Anne of Green Gables #Anne's House of Dreams #Anne of Ingleside #Sullivan Films #Megan Follows #Jonathan Crombie #Continuing Story doesn't deserve most of the hate #But it feels more like someone greenlit an expansive WWI AU from AO3 instead of the actual stories #And the less said about New Beginning the better #Meta #Fandom Musings #And I'll never forgive Kevin Sullivan for omitting the arc regarding Joyce #Megan would have done a fantastic job acting out Anne's grief

[soleminisanction]

It's telling how, on the rare occasion somebody takes enough umbrage with one of my Steph-crit posts to try and argue with them, the go-to strategy isn't to try to deny that Steph did the things being described, or to re-examine the universe context, or even to insist that said things weren't actually bad at all and shouldn't be criticized.

Instead, the refrain I hear time and again is, "Well what about the bad things Tim did to her, huh?!" and then they're rarely able to come up with much of anything.

Like, the most recent one is somebody who reblogged my post off another's blog while having me blocked so I can't actually reblog their response to answer them, but they tried to be like, "Okay, let's talk about all the times Tim violated Steph's boundaries!!" and then came up with a grand of three... two of which were not by any stretch of the imagination boundary violations ("leading her on" with that first thanks-for-saving-my-life kiss, and holding it over her head that he knew her ID when she didn't know his), and the third of which I don't actually remember happening ("coming back to her house when she told him to stay away" -- that sounds like a common enough plot beat in a superhero romance that I don't wanna say it never happened but I don't remember it).

Another was the only set of argumentative comments I've ever gotten on Sticks & Stones, where they were like, "You didn't talk about how much Tim hurt her, it's so one-sided!!" and I was just like, "...I mean they talked about their last break-up in the fic and how upset it made her but that kind of pales in comparison to the mental abuse that the fic was actually focused on, what more were you expecting?" and it turned out they'd never read any comics but Steph's Batgirl run and just assumed there must have been more to it because of that.

It's mostly just poorly thought out defensiveness of their favorite character in an us vs. them mindset. Still, it's this underlying attitude of, "My fav can't actually have done anything wrong so the person she hurt must've deserved it somehow!!" that's just... telling, y'know?

#fandom musings #fandom critical #stephanie brown critical #or at least adjacent to stephanie brown critical #meta on meta? #something like that #don't mind me it's too hot in my apartment and that means my concentration is borked

[kareenvorbarra]

listened to Beyonce's Jolene cover and obviously she sounds great and the arrangement slaps, but the changes to the lyrics are so cringe to me...it's so aggressively straight, she took this song that is barely about a man at all and made it about how strong her relationship with her husband is. like is she allergic to the lesbian subtext of the original? is she incapable of singing about romantic relationships other than her irl marriage? and if she didn't want to sing a homoerotic song about a woman who doesn't trust her male partner, why cover the song at all? i just find it boring on a purely artistic level, idk

#fandom musings #not really but idk what else to tag this #i was excited to hear her sing it! oh well

[impishtubist]

I love when fandoms Name An Event that their OTP goes through and everyone just knows what they're talking about.

The Confession

The Final Fifteen

The Forty-Line Stare

The Beach Divorce

etc etc etc, gets me every time, I love it

#the first two are aziraphale/crowley #next one is wolfstar #last one is cherik #fandom musings